A waterproof connector, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2010-153072A, has an electric wire seal positioned in a rear end portion of a housing of the connector. The connector, for example, is a plug connector and the housing is a plug housing. The seal comes into close contact with outer peripheral portions of a plurality of cables. The electric wire seal is integrally formed with a housing seal portion which contacts an inside of a mating housing of a mating connector.
In an embodiment in which the plug connector is a shield connector, the plug connector also has a shell made of metal enclosing the plug housing and the electric wire seal positioned in the rear end portion of the plug housing is pressed by a seal cover. In order to prevent corrosion of a shield braid connected to the shell, another seal member, in addition to the electric wire seal, is positioned between the shell and the plug housing.
Thus, in order to block entry of water into a space in which a terminal of the plug connector and a terminal of the mating connector are housed, it is necessary to prevent entry of water both between the plug housing and the mating housing and to prevent entry of water between the electric wire and the plug housing. Additionally, in the case of a shield connector, in order to block water from entering the braid connected to the shell through a path between the shell and the plug housing or between the shell and the mating housing, it is necessary to prevent entry of water between the shell and the plug housing or between the shell and the mating housing. A shield connector therefore requires at least three seal members. However, since such a shield connector has a large number of components, the manufacturing and assembly costs of the sealed shield connector are high.